The article reasserts the primacy of drawing as a driver of creativity within art schools. It reviews specific aspects of visual perception theory and visual communication theory relevant to a pedagogical strategy as a means of nurturing an ‘intelligence of seeing’ in art students. The domain of drawing is theorised as a systemic‐functional semiotic model informed by Michael Halliday's model for language, as adapted by Michael O'Toole in his 2011 The Language of Displayed Art. The model is demonstrated as an aid to the production of drawings, rather than its more‐recognised efficacy as a means of negotiating meaning from existing works. The article is illustrated with examples of drawings by the author.